Living Well with Chronic (Non-Cancer) Pain: Discover 10 Healthy Coping Strategies You Need To Know

• A Brief Introduction to Chronic Pain
• 10 Healthy Coping Strategies for Managing Chronic Pain Effectively
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
    • Examples of Thought Distortions
  • Relaxation Therapy
  • Staying Active
    • Examples of Physical Activities for Easing Pain
  • Using Healthy Distractions: Entertainment, Humor, and Games
    • Distraction Techniques
  • Staying Socially Engaged
  • Remaining Hopeful
  • Positive Affirmations/ Positive Self Talk
  • Maintaining Proper Sleep Hygiene
  • Mind-Body Therapies
  • Stress Management
• Summary

Key Takeaways

• Chronic pain is a common reason for people to seek health care evaluation.
• Your doctor cannot resolve chronic pain with one treatment alone; they will most likely give you a multifaceted treatment regime.
• Coping strategies work by changing your mindset about the pain.
• Healthy coping strategies include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), relaxation therapy, staying active, using healthy distractions, staying socially engaged, remaining hopeful, positive affirmations, maintaining proper sleep hygiene, mind-body therapies, and stress management.

A Brief Introduction to Chronic Pain

Chronic pain affects at least a quarter of the US population. It is a common reason for people to seek health care evaluation. Chronic pain lasts more than 3–6 months or beyond the natural healing time for an injury.

Various factors cause chronic pain, including illness, injury, psychological or emotional distress, or social factors. In some cases, doctors don’t know the cause of chronic pain. The impact of chronic pain can be significant—socially and physically. If you miss days from work or school due to pain, it will likely have an economic and professional impact.

Chronic pain that causes disengagement in social gatherings, irritability, and poor sleep can lead to isolation and loneliness, which further amplifies pain. This, in turn, can create tension in your relationships.

Medically, pain is a known cause of high blood pressure. Increased muscle tension caused by pain can lead to further pain increase. The treatment for chronic pain varies depending on its cause and location. Most treatment regimens involve medications. Doctors may recommend surgery in some cases. Treatment may also include the following:

• assisted mobility devices for pain affecting your bones, joints, and muscles
• physical and occupational therapy
• non-traditional medical approaches such as acupuncture, yoga, and stretching

Often, no one treatment will take away all of your pain. Your doctor will most likely prescribe a multifaceted treatment regimen; even then, the treatment may reduce the pain but not completely resolve it. It is important to consider ways to live with chronic pain while minimizing the impact on your day-to-day life.

This leads us to the term coping. Coping is the thoughts and behaviors we use to manage stressful situations. It is dynamic. A coping mechanism that works beautifully today may do nothing for you tomorrow.

Some people use unhealthy coping mechanisms such as lashing out in anger, substances such as drugs or alcohol, and rage. These are destructive coping mechanisms as they add to the problems you are experiencing and further compound a negative impact on your health.

Healthy coping strategies are an essential part of managing chronic pain. They lead to improved mental and physical health.

It is necessary to point out that, unlike a treatment regimen, which is expected to lead to a reduction in your pain, coping strategies work by changing your mindset to the pain. The pain will still be there, but your ability to cope can influence the degree of its impact on your quality of life.

10 Healthy Coping Strategies for Managing Chronic Pain Effectively

Below, we discuss ten healthy coping strategies you can implement if you’re experiencing chronic pain. We will start with cognitive behavioral therapy.

1.   Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a process that psychologists use to address how our thoughts and feelings affect our actions. You may have one-on-one or group therapy in CBT, virtually or in person.

CBT may be used for all age groups, ranging from children to adults. The role of CBT is not unique to chronic pain. CBT is used to manage various medical and psychiatric conditions.

CBT sessions involve a deep dive into your emotional response to pain and how that emotion fuels your behavior and subsequent physical responses. One aspect of CBT is an examination of what psychologists call thought distortions. Thought distortions reveal our thoughts about a situation that is not entirely accurate; they may be skewed toward the negative. Here are a few examples of thought distortions.

Examples of Thought Distortions

1. Black-and-white thinking: thinking that something is all-or-nothing. It’s also called dichotomous or binary thinking. For example, a person with black-and-white thinking may conclude that their experience was either magnificent or a complete disaster. It involves not appreciating the moderate experience, performance, or result.
2. Selective negative recall: focusing excessively on one aspect of a whole experience.
3. Overgeneralization: basing your entire future or recalling your past based on a single experience.
4. Jumping to conclusions: creating an entire narrative based on a single act.
5. Emotional reasoning: confusing your emotions for facts, i.e., thinking that “If I feel this way, it must be true.”
6. Should statements: promoting guilt through self-criticism or self-litigation. Recalling an event and reasoning how the event would have been different had you acted differently.
7. Labeling: assigning a fixed label to yourself, others, or a situation as good or bad, not recognizing the fluidity of persons or situations.
8. Personalization: blaming yourself or others for an outcome or failing to acknowledge your role.

Examining your thought process can help you recognize thought distortions. Talking about your thinking with a friend or counselor is also beneficial. Be patient with yourself; thought distortions are part of our lifelong construct. It may take some time and effort to reverse course. Recognize this as part of your human vulnerability and strength in making a positive change.

2. Relaxation Therapy

Another coping strategy for chronic pain is relaxation therapy. This involves engaging in an activity that helps relax your muscles and mind.

Re-focusing your mental energy on the activity can distract you from pain. You can also use relaxation therapy to negate physiological pain disturbances, such as elevated blood pressure.

Here are some examples of relaxation therapy:

• Listening to music
• Playing a musical instrument
• Doing arts and crafts
• Visualizing art
• Getting a massage
• Meditation
• Reading

3. Staying Active

Since pain limits your physical abilities, staying active may not be the first thought that comes to mind as a coping strategy. However, there’s always something you can do to incorporate movement into your life, even if you have limited agility.

Shifting your mental focus from “I can’t do this because of the pain” to  “What can I do?” is an excellent place to start.

Outdoor activities offer a bonus. Studies are ongoing to determine how exposure to nature impacts pain relief. The anecdotal evidence so far is promising. Plus, buddying up for your activities encourages socialization, releasing endorphins—the feel-good hormone in your brain.

Examples of Physical Activities for Easing Pain

Low Impact	Strenuous
Relaxed Walking	Brisk Walking
Swimming	Hiking
Yoga	Cycling
Tai-Chi	Pickle Ball
Gardening	Tennis
Stretching	Dancing

4. Using Healthy Distractions: Entertainment, Humor, and Games

Similar to physical activities, distractions can help you focus on something other than the pain. The pain may still be present but may no longer be your only focus.

Various distraction techniques exist. Find the ones that work for you. If you can recruit a friend to participate in your distraction activity, that would be even better. Here are a few distraction techniques.

Distraction Techniques

• Puzzles
• Games (board or electronic)
• Drawing or doodling
• Deep breathing
• Finger or toe-tapping
• Mental (visual) imagery
• Reading or writing

5. Staying Socially Engaged

Staying socially connected is a vital coping strategy. Loneliness and isolation can have a devastating impact on our physical health and mental well-being. The US Surgeon General has raised the alarm on the crisis of loneliness in the US, citing a 29% increased risk of heart disease, 32% increased risk of stroke, and 50% increased risk of dementia. Your chances of dying prematurely increase by more than 60% if you lack social connections.

Be deliberate, nonjudgemental, and open-minded when seeking out new friends. Remember, we are all human and have shortcomings. Staying positive will help attract other like-minded positive thinkers.

But how do you stay socially connected when you are experiencing chronic pain? Undoubtedly, being engaging is a lot more challenging than sinking deeper into the pain. However, overcoming this challenge is an essential part of your recovery.

Start by reaching out to friends and family whom you find uplifting. If you do not have relationships that boost your mood, participate in a group activity. Group activities can help you nurture and build relationships with others you connect with in the group. Be deliberate, nonjudgemental, and open-minded when seeking out new friends. Remember, we are all human and have shortcomings. Staying positive will help attract other like-minded positive thinkers.

6. Remaining Hopeful

It is normal to feel discouraged when experiencing chronic pain. The pain can cloud your judgment and make it seem like things will never improve. Although these thoughts are normal, they are simply not true. The longer your mind and spirit remain in that space of dejection, the harder it will be to lift yourself from that spiritual dark hole. Staying hopeful is critical to avoid the downward spiral of despair that can lead to further thought distortions. But how can you stay hopeful despite feeling just the opposite?

First, write it down. Pause to acknowledge your thoughts and feelings and put them on paper. Once you have transferred those thoughts from your mind to a piece of paper, take the paper and trash it.

Next, write down past times you have felt sad and hopeless but have come through feeling optimistic, strengthened, and triumphant. If you cannot recall such a time, call a friend or family member and ask them to remind you. Just as we have all had moments of struggle, we have also had times of triumph. Despite the moment’s agony, it is transient and will pass. Staying hopeful is vital to our mental resilience. When you have moved past this moment, be sure to write it down so you can be prepared and have a reminder for the next time the pain cycles back around.

7. Positive Affirmations/ Positive Self Talk

Words are important. The words we tell others can build them up or strike them down. The same is true for the words we tell ourselves. Speaking positively is an essential aspect of staying in a positive mindset.

Resources for positive affirmations can come from spiritual scripture, poetry, fiction and non-fiction stories, friends, and family members. Be sure to utilize any available tools for words of affirmation.

No matter how small, positive talk reminds us of our strengths. It conjures the will to survive and transforms us from seedlings to burgeoning oaks. By regularly practicing positive talk, we are keeping our minds physically fit for the days of struggles that are bound to come. We are shifting our focus from our weaknesses to our strengths. Positive self-talk is a vital aspect of coping with chronic pain.

8. Maintaining Proper Sleep Hygiene

Are you getting enough rest? Lack of sleep can make the most well-adjusted person irritated and short-tempered. Having insufficient sleep at a time when you are also experiencing chronic pain will only compound your misery. Do all you can to get a good night’s rest.

Bedtime is not the time to skimp on the use of analgesics. Use your pain medicine if needed. Be sure to use your pain meds generously and not sparingly to reduce the chances of being woken up in the middle of the night by pain.

We cover sleep disturbance and its treatment in detail in the article, From Restless to Restful: Exploring the Causes and Treatment of Insomnia, published on myobmd.org.

9. Mind-Body Therapies

Mind-body therapies describe treatments that use the body to connect to thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Some examples of mind-body therapy are yoga, tai chi, and progressive relaxation. As the body is moved or manipulated, the focus becomes the mind’s powerful transcendental abilities. In its deepest state, your mind can take your body from its physical space to an alternate existence. Though brief, these experiences can help provide much-needed relief from physical pain.

10. Stress Management

Stress is a part of everyday life and will continue to exist as long as we live. However, we can control the degree of stress we experience and our reactions.

Two major sources of stress include the following:

1. Worrying about the past. We keep thinking about what we could have done or should have said differently. We replay past events despite knowing they are immutable and cannot be changed.
2. Being anxious about the future. We get worked up thinking about all the possible occurrences (usually negative) that may or may not happen.

One strategy for controlling stress is intentionally bringing our mind and body back to the present. This involves a process called mindfulness.

One mindfulness technique was developed by physician and researcher Dr Aleksandra Zgierska, MD, called the SABER technique. SABER is an acronym for Stop, Acknowledge, Breathe, Expand and Respond.

Stop: Stop what you are doing and bring your focus to yourself and the present moment.

Acknowledge: Acknowledge your feelings and sensations at this moment. Do so without judgment or analysis.

Breathe: Focus on your body’s movement as you inhale and exhale. Your shoulders move up and down, and your tummy moves in and out.

Expand: Expand your focus beyond your breathing to the rest of your body. Are there areas where you are feeling tense or tight?

Respond: Consider the best response to what you are feeling right now. What should you say? What should you do? Do you even need to respond? Consider your primary objective as you determine the best way to navigate your emotions.

Summary

Developing coping strategies as part of your approach to chronic pain is essential to maintaining a healthy mindset. Tailor these 10 approaches to suit your personal needs. You may not find all the strategies equally beneficial. A few will stand out and become your primary go-to method for relief. Conversely, a method that may not be suitable for your situation today may be well suited to your needs on another day. Be sure to reference this article repeatedly to become familiar with as many coping techniques as possible.

Undoubtedly, it’s not easy to maintain a positive outlook during chronic pain. However, developing a game plan can go a long way in mitigating the effects of pain on your overall quality of life.

Written by: Dayna Smith, MD | Editor: Jennifer Abayowa| Reviewed: September 28, 2024| Copyright myObMD, Inc. 2024.